2026 FIFA World Cup Day 12 recap: Ronaldo accepts Messi’s challenge as Ghana match Nigeria’s record

The 2026 FIFA World Cup action continued on day 12, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Ghana grabbing the headlines for their performance. 

Ronaldo’s Portugal kicked off the day’s action with a clash against Uzbekistan before Ghana took on England in Boston later in the day. 

Croatia then faced Panama in the first of the two late games before DR Congo and Colombia wrapped up day 12 action in Guadalajara. 

Here’s a recap of how all the games went down. 

Before the clash against Uzbekistan, it had not been a pleasant World Cup experience for Cristiano Ronaldo. 

The Al-Nassr star watched his long-time rival Lionel Messi score a hat-trick and a brace in his first two games, while he came under intense criticism for his performance in Portugal’s opener against DR Congo. 

However, Ronaldo took the criticism in his stride and responded to his critics with a brilliant performance in Portugal’s 5-0 win over Uzbekistan. 

The former Real Madrid star matched Messi’s feat against Austria by scoring a brace against Fabio Cannavaro’s men. 

It did not take long for Ronaldo to get off, as he put Portugal ahead in the sixth minute with a clean strike following a low cross from Joao Cancelo into the box. 

Ronaldo celebrated the goal by letting out all his emotions with his teammates on the bench, as he became the first player to score in six FIFA World Cup competitions. 

Nuno Mendes doubled Portugal’s lead with a free kick before Ronaldo then scored his second, finishing off a brilliant assist from Bruno Fernandes. 

Abuvohid Nematov’s own goal in the 60th minute made it four before Rafael Leao added the icing on the cake with the fifth. 

The win gave Portugal their first win of the competition, having played a 1-1 draw in their opener against DR Congo. 

England started their campaign with a 4-2 win over Croatia but could not repeat the same performance in their second group game against Ghana. 

The Three Lions were frustrated by Ghana’s defensive set-up, as they could not find a way past Benjamin Asare in goal. 

In fact, the Black Stars were the ones who came closest to winning the game after they were denied what looked like a potential penalty. 

Nonetheless, Ghana made history as they became just the fourth African country after Morocco (1986 & 2022), Cameroon (1982), and Nigeria (2014) to keep a clean sheet in their first two World Cup games. 

After losing their opener against England, Croatia faced a must-win clash against Panama, which they won, even though the performance was not great. 

Vatreni dominated right from the start but could not break down a stubborn Panama side in the first half. 

However, Panama’s resilience was finally broken nine minutes after the restart, as Ante Budimir scored the only goal to give Croatia the win. 

DR Congo started their World Cup campaign with an impressive 1-1 draw against Portugal, but were disappointing in their second game as they lost 1-0 to Colombia. 

The Leopards were second best throughout the game and had Mpasi-Nzau to thank for keeping the scoreline respectable. 

Colombia had nine shots on target but only scored one goal, thanks to Daniel Muñoz's strike in the 76th minute. 

With the win, La Tricolour booked their spot in the round of 32, while the Leopards will now need to beat Uzbekistan to progress as one of the best third-place teams.